American allies are reportedly outraged and shocked at Donald Trump’s comments that NATO is no longer relevant. It calls into question the entire status quo, even going back to the end of World War II, some say.
Let’s review what this status quo has actually meant for the United States. For the most part, it has meant that nations less friendly to liberty and freedom than the United States get to demand handouts and military defense when those countries are threatened. They’re the spoiled, entitled grown children who constantly put down mommy and daddy while happily taking their money. That’s been the dynamic since the end of World War II. Why is this such a bad thing to lose?
It seems that these European countries are quite happy looking down on American economic freedom, American prosperity, as well as our First and Second Amendments. Yet they’re also more than happy to take the military defense and aid required to keep their less prosperous, less free nations going, particularly when the going gets tough. They turn their noses up at America’s system and traditions, while happily exploiting all the good that system has done for them.
The United States has never truly enjoyed solid relationships with most of our so-called allies, if you think about it. That has largely been an illusion permitted only to the elites who make their careers in the self-congratulatory diplomatic echo chambers of Washington DC. Exceptions have been great, but rare. Great Britain, particularly under Winston Churchill (during World War II) and Margaret Thatcher (at the climax of the Cold War) stand out as notable exceptions. So does Benjamin Netanyahu, the lone voice for freedom and rationality in the Middle East today. These are the kind of people who genuinely love what America stands for and are proud to stand side-by-side with us in times of crisis. Beyond these laudable exceptions, American alliances and friendships with foreign nations leave a lot to be desired.
I question why we should unconditionally give money to people who constantly pester and complain about everything, most of all the United States – the very nation who provides all the loot, and all the moral and military support to these feckless allies. Take the fascist Angela Merkel, who’s turning Germany into a modern day Nazi state. Hitler did it with his Nazi party. Now Merkel is making the same thing happen by foisting Western-hating Muslims on her own population. Political correctness (always for the Muslims, never for any other group) now matters more than a woman’s right not to be raped in many parts of Germany. It’s madness.
Merkel’s also threatening American companies like Facebook with lawsuits or even criminal charges if they permit commentary offensive to Islam over the Internet in Germany. How is this any different than Hitler’s similarly anti-Semitic totalitarian regime back in the 1930s and 1940s? Granted, Merkel has not taken things to the point of concentration camps. But Muslims, who support things like Sharia Law overriding the rights of non-Muslims to live as they choose, will eventually do the job of extermination for them. Who in the hell cares if Donald Trump alienates “allies” like the terrorist-enabling Merkel?
These are the kind of people we’re calling friends. France, Italy and other European countries have been similarly unfriendly to the United States over the years, going back to World War II and before. Isn’t it time we become more selective about whom we choose to be our friends? I’m not suggesting we should never build alliances or make decisions that may be in our national security interest when specific, objective circumstances require it. But those alliances should be specific, few and far between. Friendship – among countries – should be earned, just like friendship among individuals. It’s ridiculous to continue this charade.
Look at the kind of people who have the most to lose from Trump’s remarks: Germany’s Merkel, Russia’s socialist-fascist Putin, the totalitarian Chinese, and the sorry, endless parade of French, Greek, Dutch, Scandinavian and Italian socialists to which we’re regularly subjected. They’re hardly high quality friends. They need us far more than we need them. The only way this could change would be if we became one of them – that is, as socialist, fascist or Islamist as most of them already are. Obama was pushing us in that direction and it’s desperately important that Donald Trump and the new Congress reverse that trend 180 degrees, and quickly.
In America, it’s people who supported Obama and the similarly-minded Bush-Clinton dynasty before him who are the most outraged and upset by Trump’s defiant attitude toward our entitled allies. Like many who voted for Trump, I’m delighted and encouraged by his attitude in this respect. It’s about time the entitled fools we’ve been calling our friends all these decades start to realize they have to earn our friendship. And the only way for us to strengthen that position is to expand economic and individual liberty in the United States, where such ideals first became reality on an unprecedented scale. If Trump fosters liberty, he’ll be a highly successful president indeed. And it’s the only way he will ever deliver on his promise to make America great again.
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